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Pobst on top in Pirelli World Challenge at Laguna Seca

May 11, 2012

Jeff Pobst had his way with the field on Saturday, cruising to a Pirelli World Challenge win at Monterey.

Randy Pobst, of Gainesville, Ga., led all the way to win the Pirelli World Challenge Cadillac Sports Car Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, piloting his Volvo S60 to the GT class win. Peter Cunningham, of Milwaukee, Wis., captured the GTS win, while Todd Lamb, of Atlanta, Ga., won in Touring Car.

Starting from the pole with his No. 6 K-PAX Racing Volvo S60, Pobst got the holeshot on the standing start, built a 3.5-second lead over teammate Alex Figge, of Denver, Colo., by lap three and was never seriously challenged to win at the undulating 11-turn, 2.358-mile circuit for the third time, and first since 2006. It was Pobst’s first series win of the 2012 season, the 27th of his career.

“This is the combination of so much hard work by the K-PAX Volvo racing team and this track and the Volvo working well together,” Pobst said after the race. “The car’s better than ever. We had some trouble keeping it running last year. I think they’ve got it sorted out, though. We’re going to have some good races with these guys for the rest of the year. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is just right for the Volvo with its all-wheel drive, especially coming out of Turn 11. It just rocks off that corner!”

Pobst set a new lap record during the race, with a 1:27.491 (92.087 mph).

Figge started third in his No. 9 K-PAX Racing Volvo S60, but launched into second at the start around the No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V of Andy Pilgrim. From there, he maintained second for the duration of the 28-lap, 62.664-mile contest, closing twice under caution, but never forcing the issue with his teammate.

“A great day for the team and for Volvo,” Figge said. “Andy Pilgrim was really a gentleman, as he always is, driving clean and his own race. That made it a lot more fun for me as well as we had a little dice on the restart. Other than that, it was just about putting laps in and making sure we had a one-two for the guys.

“The restarts were the only places to maybe try something, but the cars don’t run really well in traffic, even behind a similar car. Yesterday, in qualifying, it was Randy’s day and he had the pace today. It wasn’t going to be some easy move to go by Randy, so I think it was better to run a clean race, take the points and the one-two.”

Steve Ott, who started sixth but moved to fourth on the opening lap, running closely behind Figge and Pilgrim for the first 10 laps, finished fifth in the No. 85 Racing For Our Heros/Loctite Porsche 911 GT3 to equal his career-best.

Cadillac drivers sit one-two in the Championship point standings, with O’Connell on top, with 573, followed by Pilgrim, with 559. Pobst moved to third, with 502, followed by Aschenbach (427) and Sofronas (409), who retired with a mechanical problem on the front straight to bring out the race’s first caution on lap 15.

Cadillac also maintained the Manufacturers Championship lead over Porsche 37 to 33, with Volvo closing the gap, with 25, followed by Chevrolet, with eight.

Cunningham started from his fourth-consecutive GTS class pole position in the No. 42 Acura/HPD/RealTime Racing Acura TSX, but saw Jack Baldwin’s No. 68 Voodoo Ride-Invoice Prep/Hot Wheels Porsche Cayman S get the jump from the second starting spot. It wasn’t long, though before Cunningham made the Invisible Glass Clean Pass of the Race to put his Acura back up front, a position he held from lap two until the finish to capture the first win of the new V-6 powered Acura in Pirelli World Challenge GTS competition.

With the win, and coupled with the retirement of pre-race point leader Justin Bell, Cunningham took over the Championship point lead, with 602 to Baldwin’s 552. Bell was running in the top five in his No. 50 eBay Motors Ford Mustang Boss 302S but was involved in a heavy incident coming out of the last corner with Touring Car polesitter Tristan Herbert’s No. 33 HPA/RennGruppe/Brimtek/SG Racing Volkswagen Jetta GLI, which brought out the race’s final caution on lap 21. Neither driver was injured.

“When I came around and saw Justin in the wall, that was awful,” Cunningham said. “Justin is a good friend, and you don’t want to get points because the friend was in the wall so that’s a bummer for that team. We’ve had our days, too, so it was a good day points wise for RealTime and Acura and for the drivers points. We’re proud to get these points and carry on now to Detroit.”

Cunningham also set a new track record for GTS during the race, with a fastest time of 1:34.137 (85.585 mph).

Herbert started from the pole, but was jumped by the Honda Civics of Compass360 teammates Todd Lamb (No. 71 National Karting News/HPD) and Ryan Winchester (No. 72 Ligon Industries/HPD) at the start. Point leader Michael Cooper, who started fifth in his No. 03 Mazdaspeed Motorsports MAZDASPEED3 had contact off the start and immediately had a flat tire, necessitating a trip to the pit lane, dropping him to last.

Lamb led the entire way, but had to deal with a charging Jeff Altenburg, of Ellicott City, Md., in his No. 43 HPA/RennGruppe Brimtek/SG Racing Volkswagen Jetta GLI in the race’s closing laps. Their battle was broken off in the end by a slower GTS car that separated the two and allowed Lamb to open up more of a gap to the checkered flag.

It was Lamb’s second Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car win of his rookie season, and the former SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup Champion took the point lead over that series’ defending Champion Cooper, 771 to 755.

“It was a great points day,” Lamb added. “It’s nice to win races, but we’re here to win the Championship for Honda. A huge step in the right direction today, so we should be close to leading the points.”

Altenburg scored his best finish of the year at a track that he has twice won previously.